MileStone Update

I haven't done one for a while...

Patrick:
- takes off his boots/shoes, mittens and coat independently (sometimes with much prodding)
- can stand on one foot and today jumped on one foot for the first time!
- knows all the standard colours (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, black, brown, white).
- knows all the standard shapes (circle, square, triangle, diamond, rectangle)
- can count independently up to 30; recognizes all numbers between 0 and 30, in and out of order. Can put the numbers in order from 0-30 from random (flashcards).
- can count backwards from 10 to 1.
- can say the alphabet independently; recognizes all letters, upper and lower case, in and out of order. Can put alphabet flashcards in correct order from random.
- knows his first and last names
- can sing "Twinkle Twinkle" entirely independenly
- knows animals - house, farm & zoo, and some of their sounds
- knows all the body parts, can sing "head and shoulders" and actually hit the right spots
- has started being imaginative in his play - especially with Kathryns dollhouse
- speaks well, but still hard to understand by other adults.
- plays very cooperatively with his sister - even seeks her out to play together.

Kathryn:
- is walking independently
- has mastered the ability to walk in her snowsuit!
- wants to feed herself everything - is quite neat with a spoon!
- drinks independently from a sippy cup
- is FINALLY sleeping through the night
- plays peek-a-boo and patty cake; claps at the right spot for "if you're happy and you know it"; initiates these games with mommy
- knows where her head, eyes, ears and nose are.
- loves books
- loves to draw scribbles with crayons or on the magna doodle or aqua doodle
- babbles constantly and has quite a vocab (including mommy, daddy, kitty, all done, hi, bye, etc)
- still loves to jump in her jolly jumper, on her exercise zebra and on the couch (while supervised).


Whew. I'm sure there is more, but K just woke up and is calling me through the monitor!

We had professional photos done this morning at Sears and they sent us home with these proofs:

We've purchased the digital CD so we'll have the copyrights to all the photos. We've ordered the first family shot in an 8X10 to hang in our hall, and also an 8X10 of Kathryn (not one shown here) for her 1st year pic. We also got the same collage as Patrick had for his 1st birthday shots. Once we get the CD, we'll post better (and all) pics!

I decided yesterday to try out the sled Auntie Boo gave Kathryn for her birthday! The snow was definetly too thick for the stroller, but we were going a bit stircrazy having been in the house all day.

Here is the inside shot:
And the outside shot, after much bundling! They look cosy, don't they?
We walked to the mailboxes and got the mail and then home again. I would have gone farthur but K wasn't too happy and kept sliding onto her back. Unfortunately, the snow was too deep to get to the swings.

We arrived back home just before Shaun did! Here are the kids watching him snowblow the driveway:

On a side note, K figured out yesterday how to WALK in her snowsuit!! It was really cute to see her toddling around like the stay-puft marshmellow man. Usually when she's in her snowsuit I call her my starfish because her limbs are all stuck out.

And here is Shaun blowing out the drive. As you can see, we got quite a bit of snow yesterday!

After naptime today, I was combing through K's hair and I decided to try and put a pony in it. I've actually been thinking about doing this for a while because her hair gets in her eyes, but I thought she didn't have enough hair.

She does.

Here is K with her first pony - a "cindy-loo who" type do!!



Patrick is wearing his new Christmas tracksuit from Auntie Sara (&Uncle Derek, and girls) today! He looks sooo cosy and comfy! He (unfortunately) ougrew the green one they gave him last Christmas earlier this week - I was so sad to put it in the box, but I know I'll get to enjoy it again when Kathryn wears it

My Big Boy.

Patrick has outgrown all his trackpants (except the new ones from Auntie Sara). I realized he'd ougrown my favourite green ones earlier this week, and today I put the grey ones on him and they're too short too! I swear, he grew overnight.

He's getting to be such a big boy, not only in height but his vocabulary is growing every day too. He's getting better at talking in sentences, but still need to work on expressing exactly what he wants (instead of "some" or "that" or just "please" without any context).

Kathryn had her 1-yr check up and shots today.

She is 20 lbs, 12 oz and 28 1/2 inches long.

She was great with the shots too, only crying briefly. All in all, she is in excellent health. Yay Kathryn!

I think I've fixed the comment issue. If you've had difficulty leaving comments in the past, try again and let me know.

Lisa got a really good shot of K with her cake!
Thanks Boo!

We had Kathryn's birthday party today! We decided to wait an extra week because we wanted everyone to recover from Christmas (us included). We had a great time!

Kathryn's birthday Balloons:
The Birthday Princess:

Birthday Brother:
Princess Cake:
MMmMm cake! Where'd the birthday girl go?
Opening Presents! These are only a small selection of the ones that Shaun took.

A terrific tracksuit from G&G M:
A new song CD from Josh & Steph:

Patrick was super excited about a new song CD! He asked Daddy to put it on right away!
Princess sippy cups from Auntie Boo & James:
Pretty as a present with a bow on her head from Caleb:
YAHOO for more clothes! Thanks G&G H! Patrick wants to open the puzzle from Char & Dave and Kathryn loves her pink ducky from Auntie Boo:

Opening her gift from mommy & daddy:

OooH I hope it's a chair!
WOW! Its a Fisher Price Gymnastics Zebra!
The Grandpa's putting it together, with supervision from Great Gramma:
Yahoo! Ride 'em cowgirl!

We had a great and busy day! I hope everyone had a nice time. We were sad that Sara, Derek & the girls were too sick to come and hope they all feel better soon!

KATHRYN CAN WALK!!

Its very exciting! After weeks of being 'almost there', she took off yesterday evening with both sets of grandparents here to witness. She had been up to 5 steps, and she quickly went to 12.

Today, at her birthday party, she continued to add to her steps and can now navigate right across the living room! Her new skill was quite a hit - we are all so proud of her.

Speaking of her party, she was absolutely spoiled once again! She got clothes, and books, a puzzle, a dolly and the baby gymnastics zebra - fun!! She was great this morning and had a little nap for me while I drove around for a while. She made it right to 2 o'clock before she crashed and had an hour snooze in her crib. Actually, Patrick & Caleb napped then too - so it was very quiet for a while.

I'll post some pictures soon!

More Birthday Fun!
Kathryn got a package in the mail today from Mike & Lesley:

Patrick helped to open it:
OoOOh look what's inside:
A pretty pink dress for the pretty princess!
And a shirt and sox too!!
And a great new book: From head to toe by Eric Carle:

Thanks so much guys!! I'll post pics of her in her pretty dress soon!

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY KATHRYN!!

Today I discovered why she's been so cranky and clingy - she's popped her upper and lower left molars!! WOW!! Congrats to you, Kathryn! Now you have 10 teeth.

We've had a pretty laid back day, but we did get all prettied up and go over to Shaun's parents for cake! I put Kathryn in the outfit she got from Great Uncle Abe and Barb for Christmas:
And she's finally (almost) got enough hair to put 'pretties' in:
Gramma and Grampy gave Kathryn her present! She got a really soft white Mary Meyer bear...
...and with some help from her brother.....

...she unwrapped the box and found it contained a musical jewlry box!
It plays "you are my sunshine", a song which I sing to each of my kids at least once a day! So its a well-known favourite around here. There is also a spot to put her picture on the lid!
I made us a little cake, and we all sang to Kathryn. I think she really had no idea what to make of it:
I love the look on her face here:

And here she is enjoying the cake! Mostly she just played with it. She did really have fun wacking at it with a spoon, though:
Patrick devoured his piece in record time and asked for more:
We also got a family shot in front of the tree because we'd forgotten to do this on Christmas morning in all the chaos!

Kathryn is getting much more adventerous with her table fare! She gets right into new food with her hands, face and hair... basically she gets it everywhere.



This picture was taken after her first encounter with Cheesy Itallian Hamburger Helper.

Messy baby!

Christmas with my parents was on January 1st.

We had a great time attacking the tree, watching movies, playing out in the snow and going for a walk, and of course a delicious dinner. I am quite surprised that we didn't take any pictures! I am really hoping that my sister and my dad have some to share. If they do, I'll post them here.

We also celebrated my sister's, Kathryn's and Shaun's birthdays! We had presents and cupcakes.

Here is Kathryn checking out her cake"
She wasn't too sure if she liked it and ended up getting more in her hair than in her mouth:
Patrick devoured his with lightening speed and equal mess:
MMmM that glazed suger look:

Patrick and Kathryn both love this chair at my parent's house. It spins effortlesly and they both enjoy the ride so much that they'll even share it! They look so cute snuggled up together.